


Stark Men Are Made Of Iron

by Victis



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, as well as about how the rest of the world views him, howard stark (brief mention does it count who knows), right in the feels, sad kind of, the physical and mental armor he puts up vs the world, this deals with tony's feelings about himself and his father, tony stark character observations, tony stark meta, tony stark vs press, tony stark's armor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-19 04:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5954185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Victis/pseuds/Victis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony's armor is more than just metal he cocoons himself in when he goes to save the world; it's so much more than that, and it's always with him, one way or another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stark Men Are Made Of Iron

**Author's Note:**

> A fic that started due to both my love for Tony Stark as a deep and complex character, as well as because of some very well-phrased meta posts about his personality and habits that I saw on Tumblr.

Tony Stark goes to war every time he steps into the public eye. Not in iron armor ( _it’s more of a gold-titanium alloy, really_ ); but in sharp-cut shades, a three-piece Gucci suit and a tie made out of gold. The people who know him would say that it matches his heart, if asked; the people who don’t say that it’s extravagance to the point of being disgusting.

The press eats it up. They call him many things; _forward-thinking, man of the year, egotistical, wealthy beyond reason, futurist, a playboy, a hero, a detriment to society, a menace_ , and more.

They don’t know that when he’s not being Iron Man, he still wears that armor; it’s just different, in the form of sharp-cut shades, a three-piece Gucci suit, and a tie made out of gold. He smiles on the surface, but not behind the shades, and people whisper; _Is he going gray? Is it just me, or does he look a little older than he did the last time he had a press conference? Maybe he’s finally losing his edge, what do you think_? They can’t see that he’s focused on a thousand other things to try and keep himself together.

He always keeps himself together and sometimes it’s the armor that does it. Eyes follow the voices in the crowd behind tinted glass as he answers questions; “ _What will you do now that stocks have dropped a whopping thirty points?”_ He points at them briefly; flashy, but commanding, and replies; “ _What I always do– and no, this isn’t a ‘take over the world’ joke, I promise. But no, what I always do,”_ and he pauses to smooth down the front of impeccably pressed fabric like he’s shining up the armor that keeps him alive, and the crowd leans in as cameras flash to take pictures of him in the pause.

“ _I’ll keep looking forwards to the future; better yet, I’ll bring us there. My dad always said–”_ and he cringes internally; his father said a lot of things and he’s still here and now, parroting the words of a dead man back to people who eat it up like his father was and is still so much better than him … “ _–.. My father always said– that Stark men are made of iron.”_  

His fingers curl, slowly but surely and into a fist at his side and his comfort - small but solid - is the watch that sits there, hidden partially by that three-piece Gucci suit. It’s not a watch; it’s just more armor (newly finished), but when is anything he puts on anything less than a perfectly-veiled barrier between him and the world?

" _But that’s not true._ "

A hush falls over the crowd; this is a direction they never expected things to go, and the flashes of the cameras start going off more frequently. Reporters and press rarely  miss an opportunity to capture a moment, good or bad, and they aren’t slacking on this one, either.

 _“Stark International needs to be more flexible than that. **I**  need to be more flexible than that. Iron is perfect if you want to keep something rigid, unyielding - but times change. People change,”_ and he takes a breath because he shifts where he stands; he pans a look out at the crowd, and people who were so eager to pick apart his character not even minutes ago have been silenced as effectively as if someone had slapped them quiet. _“.. People change, and that means we need to change. Here at Stark International, we pride ourselves in our ability to change with what’s needed most in the world. Right now, the world needs to rebuild - to help the refugees, and to make the world a safer, better place. My father always said that Stark men are like iron, but I say, here and now, that Stark men need to be more like gold. A powerful conductor for the energy of change, and malleable enough to be used for it.”_

The hush stays over the crowd as he straightens up just a little bit; he knows the questions are coming, he knows the microphones will follow. His eyes close behind the shades like he’s steeling himself for a firing-squad, but nobody can see it, and that’s just how he likes it. He raises a hand to smooth that tie down, and the gold, some people who know him would say, is him wearing his heart on his sleeve. 

Stark men are like iron; he finds it funny, as the reporters start to shoot questions off at him like semi-automatics, that one of the phrases he hates the most is the exact phrase he dons like a shield against the world when he’s trying to be the man everybody thinks he should be. _Iron Man; a hero, a savior of the world._

Tony stark goes to war every time he steps into the public eye; he goes as the person he hates the most, but not in armor. In a sharp-cut shades, a three-piece Gucci suit, and a tie made out of gold.


End file.
